Sometimes the best way to learn something is to bang your head against a problem until it hurts. It's not fun, but you'll never forget the lesson.

Here are a few marketing truths I've learned the hard way over the years.

  1. The best marketing messages are simple.
  2. Simple is hard.
  3. Testing and metrics can lead you down the wrong path.
  4. Marketing is a series of trials and experiments to see what works now, with a certain group of people, under specific circumstances.
  5. One size does not fit all. Unless it does.
  6. Marketing is not linear, it's exponential.
  7. Marketing is messy because human beings are messy.
  8. It doesn't matter if it "doesn't speak to you". You're an insider, dummy. Figure out what those on the outside respond to.
  9. Ignore David Ogilvy at your peril. He was brilliant in 1950 and he'll teach you almost everything you need to know about marketing today.
  10. Talent is great, but craft will save your ass.
  11. For humans, visual information trumps all other senses.
  12. If your strategy is to send out an email "blast", you don't get it.
  13. Abraham Maslow knew what motivates us all.
  14. We're less rational and more emotional than we think.
  15. Every. Word. Counts.

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Keith Monaghan (the G is silent) works, writes and drinks way too much coffee in Portland, Oregon. He's been helping companies with product development and marketing strategy since the Internet was new and shiny.